2023 Turkish general election

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 185 Turkish political advertisers during the 2023 Turkish general election to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (May 7th - May 13th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (Apr 14th - May 13th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

Topline Statistics

Daily Spend

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend ₺23,891,878 and ran 4257 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

AKP

33


1. AK Parti (₺4,074,690)
2. AK Parti İstanbul (₺3,793,087)
3. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (₺1,780,751)

1,126

₺12,842,710

CHP

44


1. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (₺1,952,401)
2. Ekrem İmamoğlu (₺1,591,197)
3. CHP Ankara İl Başkanlığı (₺130,232)

1,034

₺4,126,778

MHP

33


1. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP) (₺2,064,999)
2. Levent Uysal (₺626,191)
3. Turgay Baştuğ (₺148,852)

1,079

₺3,614,742

YSP

3


1. Yeşil Sol Parti (₺1,168,393)
2. Yeşil Sol Batman (₺10,540)
3. Yeşil Sol Parti Hatay (₺100)

90

₺1,179,033

İYİ

7


1. NA (₺306,808)
2. Ahmet Katar (₺242,894)
3. Bahadır Erdem (₺97,430)

481

₺1,000,247

DEVA

7


1. Deva Partisi (₺423,080)
2. DEVA Partisi Sivas İl Teşkilatı (₺84,317)
3. Deva Partisi Trabzon İl Başkanlığı (₺1,858)

96

₺509,843

ATA Alliance

1


1. Sinan Oğan (₺256,706)

17

₺256,706

BBP

3


1. Rıdvan Eşin (₺105,404)
2. Osman Seçgin (₺48,113)
3. Aydın için Rıdvan Eşin (₺100)

109

₺153,617

Memleket Partisi

5


1. Muharrem İNCE (₺66,166)
2. Memleket Partisi (₺44,648)
3. Memleket Partisi Gaziantep (₺1,162)

45

₺112,450

YRP

15


1. Yeniden Refah Partisi (₺74,647)
2. Yeniden Refah Partisi Çekmeköy İlçe Başkanlığı (₺7,920)
3. Yeniden Refah Partisi Karabük (₺4,671)

181

₺95,852

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend ₺10,158,946 and ran 2052 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

AKP

27


1. AK Parti İstanbul (₺1,678,476)
2. AK Parti (₺1,009,257)
3. Murat Kurum (₺987,076)

518

₺5,524,978

MHP

24


1. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP) (₺1,092,869)
2. Levent Uysal (₺228,524)
3. Turgay Baştuğ (₺89,822)

600

₺1,748,165

CHP

25


1. Ekrem İmamoğlu (₺706,783)
2. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (₺471,308)
3. Emre Yılmaz (₺70,044)

482

₺1,479,136

YSP

2


1. Yeşil Sol Parti (₺473,728)
2. Yeşil Sol Batman (₺5,301)

40

₺479,029

İYİ

7


1. Ahmet Katar (₺119,999)
2. NA (₺45,000)
3. Lutfullah Kayalar (₺41,931)

167

₺325,273

DEVA

3


1. Deva Partisi (₺248,405)
2. DEVA Partisi Sivas İl Teşkilatı (₺45,508)
3. Deva Partisi Trabzon İl Başkanlığı (₺100)

54

₺294,013

ATA Alliance

1


1. Sinan Oğan (₺131,473)

9

₺131,473

YRP

9


1. Yeniden Refah Partisi (₺56,018)
2. Yeniden Refah Partisi Çekmeköy İlçe Başkanlığı (₺3,862)
3. Yeniden Refah Partisi Karabük (₺3,706)

130

₺66,969

BBP

2


1. Rıdvan Eşin (₺59,578)
2. Osman Seçgin (₺6,800)

23

₺66,378

Memleket Partisi

3


1. Muharrem İNCE (₺24,939)
2. Memleket Partisi (₺17,679)
3. Memleket Partisi Gaziantep (₺914)

29

₺43,532

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Overall

By Party

Top Targeted (Detailed) Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party for the “detailed” targeting that Meta offers (ranked by amount of Turkish Lira spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”. In each row on the right hand side, you can see how much in total was spend on that specific target audience.

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Geo Targeting

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Provinces

Provinces (Maps)

AKP

MHP

CHP

Cities

Geo Exclusion

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Provinces

Provinces (Maps)

AKP

MHP

CHP

Cities

Age Targeting

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 7th - May 13th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

Apr 14th - May 13th 2023 (Last 30 days)